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Brian Armstrong Denies Lobbying Against Bitcoin De Minimis Tax Exemption

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Brian Armstrong Denies Lobbying Against Bitcoin De Minimis Tax Exemption


Brian Armstrong says claims Coinbase opposed a Bitcoin de minimis tax exemption in Washington are “totally false.”

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, has pushed back against claims that his company’s lobbyists are working to block a Bitcoin (BTC) tax exemption in Washington, calling the allegations “totally false.”

The dispute has drawn in Bitcoin advocates, tax lawyers, and crypto lobbyists, and cuts to the center of a wider debate about who the biggest companies in crypto actually represent when they walk the halls of Congress.

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What the Accusations Said

The allegations were made by Truth for the Commoner (TFTC), a Bitcoin-focused media account with nearly 100,000 followers on X, which posted on March 11 that Coinbase had told legislators “no one is using Bitcoin as money” and that a BTC de minimis exemption would be “DOA.”

According to TFTC, Coinbase has a financial motive for opposing the BTC tax exemption. The account claimed that the exchange earned $1.35 billion last year in stablecoin revenue, with almost all the money coming from interest on U.S. Treasuries held in reserves backing USDC.

TFTC also suggested that a de minimis rule that covers BTC but not stablecoins would make the king crypto a more attractive payment option, and that would pull users away from Coinbase’s yield-generating stablecoin ecosystem.

Recall that last year, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced digital asset tax legislation seeking to provide a de minimis exemption for crypto gains taxes on crypto transactions of up to $300. According to TFTC, the House version of the bill caps at $200 and only covers stablecoins.

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Armstrong directly responded to the accusations against Coinbase, saying:

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“Not sure where you’re getting this misinformation (perhaps you can share?) but it’s totally false. I’ve spent a bunch of time lobbying for Bitcoin’s de minimis tax exemption, and will continue doing so.”

However, TFTC co-founder Mart Bent didn’t back down, telling Armstrong:

“I have sources that say otherwise, not you personally but your team and/or lobbyists.”

He also asked whether the Coinbase chief would walk away from the market structure bill if it failed to have a Bitcoin de minimis exemption, as he had done earlier in the year, when he withdrew support for the CLARITY Act after disagreements over stablecoin yield.

A Policy Debate With Numerous Moving Parts

Meanwhile, tax lawyer Jason Schwartz, known as “CryptoTaxGuy” on X, has tried to offer some context in the exchange between Armstrong and TFTC.

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According to him, the discussion might be mixing up four separate policy ideas, which are a personal use de minimis rule, a gas fee exemption, a change in stablecoin reporting, and a plan to consider stablecoin gains and losses as zero.

Schwartz added that different market participants will naturally advocate harder for different provisions, and this alone shouldn’t be seen as one party trying to “kill” another provision.

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NIO (NIO) Stock Surges 19% as Technical Breakout Signals Potential Rally Ahead

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NIO Stock Card

Key Takeaways

  • NIO has successfully broken above both its 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages, with both trend lines now pointing upward
  • Technical indicators show bullish RSI divergence alongside significant volume increases during rallies, suggesting diminishing bearish pressure
  • Chart analysis reveals a double bottom formation with a breakout level at $5.79, projecting a move toward $8 by late 2026
  • Call option volume reached 58,591 contracts with an exceptionally low put/call ratio of 0.30, indicating bullish sentiment
  • Fellow Chinese EV competitor XPeng (XPEV) climbed 14% this week, reinforcing sector-wide momentum

Holding NIO shares has tested investors’ patience considerably. Following its peak above $60 in the first quarter of 2021, the Chinese electric vehicle maker endured a prolonged decline that ultimately bottomed in single-digit territory. However, recent price action suggests a potential turning point.


NIO Stock Card
NIO Inc., NIO

Shares were changing hands near $5.60 on Thursday, marking an approximate 19% weekly advance — positioning this week as the strongest performance since late August 2025, assuming momentum holds through Friday’s trading session.

The technical configuration is capturing market attention. NIO has successfully recaptured both its 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages during this week’s rally, with both indicators now trending upward. This represents a significant departure from the stock’s positioning just a few months earlier.

Technical analysts have identified a bullish RSI divergence, characterized by ascending RSI lows despite the stock printing lower price lows. This divergence typically indicates weakening downside momentum. Trading volume corroborates this interpretation — pronounced volume surges accompanying upward price movement represent a textbook indication of institutional accumulation.

The stock has also successfully retested a bull flag breakout pattern that originated in August. A double bottom formation has emerged with a pivot point established at $5.79. The catalyst for this pattern was a bearish island reversal that concluded with a 7.3% downward gap on December 31. NIO subsequently printed a bullish hammer candlestick on March 3, followed immediately by a bullish island reversal to the upside in the next trading session.

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Analysts are projecting an upside objective of $8 by the latter half of 2026 — representing a 42% appreciation from current price levels. The bullish scenario remains viable above support at $4.75.

Extended Time Frame Analysis

Examining the five-year weekly chart provides greater clarity regarding the bottoming process. Since early 2024, NIO has been trading within what appears to be a base-building consolidation pattern. Beginning in October, the right shoulder of a bullish inverse head-and-shoulders formation has been developing.

Should the stock clear the $8 resistance threshold later in 2026, the extended-term projection based on this pattern suggests a potential move toward $13 by early 2027.

Accumulation patterns have been evident since the previous summer, with buyers consistently defending lower price levels.

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Options Activity Reflects Bullish Positioning

The derivatives market is reflecting the underlying momentum. Thursday saw 58,591 call contracts trade hands in NIO. Short-dated contracts expiring March 13 and March 26 comprised approximately 19,900 of that total. The put/call ratio currently stands at just 0.30 — an unusually low figure indicating traders are purchasing call options at more than three times the rate of protective puts.

Implied volatility has also expanded, reflecting heightened speculative interest in the name.

NIO’s upcoming quarterly earnings announcement is scheduled for June 2, which may be contributing to the increased options positioning.

On a year-to-date basis, NIO has advanced 7.25%. The company’s current market capitalization is $12.48 billion.

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XPeng is experiencing similar strength this week, climbing 14% as of Thursday afternoon and positioned to break a three-week losing streak.

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Vitalik says Ethereum’s real value is a global shared data bulletin board

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ETH liquidation walls at $2,057–$1,863 set stage for violent move

Vitalik Buterin reframes Ethereum as censorship‑resistant “global shared memory,” with PeerDAS scaling its data layer for voting, identity, and on‑chain coordination.

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin says the network’s real value lies in acting as a globally shared “bulletin board” for data availability, rather than just a smart contract or payments platform, sharpening the narrative around Ethereum’s role in the broader crypto stack.

Vitalik reframes Ethereum’s core value

In a new post on X, Buterin argued that Ethereum’s fundamental contribution is providing a publicly readable and writable data layer that cryptographic protocols can reliably anchor to. He highlighted that many high-value use cases—secure online voting, software version control, certificate revocation and more—depend on having an open, persistent data space rather than purely on complex smart contract logic.

Buterin framed ETH not only as a payment asset, but as a core instrument for Sybil resistance and as collateral for smart contracts, positioning it at the center of a decentralized, privacy-preserving, open-source technology stack. In his view, smart contracts and DeFi are extensions built atop this shared memory, not the base value proposition itself.

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PeerDAS, scaling, and “global shared memory”

Buterin also pointed to Ethereum’s PeerDAS upgrade as a key step in scaling this data availability layer, saying it already increases Ethereum’s data capacity by about 2.3x, with a path toward 10–100x gains over time. Improved data throughput, combined with lower fees, is meant to support a broader range of applications beyond DeFi, including governance systems, identity, and new classes of on-chain coordination tools.

He summed up Ethereum as a kind of “global shared memory,” where applications can reliably publish and read data in a neutral environment secured by ETH-based economic incentives. For developers and protocols, the message is clear: treat Ethereum first as a durable, censorship-resistant data availability layer, and only secondarily as a smart contract execution chain.

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BlackRock’s Staked ETH ETF Sees $15.5M on Debut

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BlackRock’s Staked ETH ETF Sees $15.5M on Debut

BlackRock’s staked Ethereum exchange-traded fund has tallied $15.5 million in trading volume on its first trading day, which a market analyst described as “very, very solid” despite falling short of two similar Solana staking products that launched last year.

Nasdaq data shows the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB) had 592,804 shares traded on its debut on Thursday, with Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart noting on X that the product turned over around $15.5 million.

“Very, very solid for a day 1 ETF launch,” Seyffart said.

The ETF invests and stakes Ether (ETH), locking up the tokens on the blockchain with the aim of providing a yield. The fund relies on network validators to capture staking rewards, typically offering a yield of 4% annually.

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Source: James Seyffart

ETHB’s $15.5 million in debut trading volume trailed similar staking funds tied to the Solana (SOL) token, including the $55.4 million in volume recorded by the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) when it debuted in October. Another similar fund, the REX-Osprey SOL + Staking ETF (SSK), also recorded $33.7 million on its debut in July.

ETHB adds to BlackRock’s crypto product lineup, which includes its two flagship crypto funds, the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) and iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA). 

Related: Basic adds VanEck crypto ETFs to 401(k) plans amid US retirement shift

The two ETFs have respectively attracted over $62.8 billion and $11.9 billion worth of inflows since launching in 2024, Farside Investors data shows.